


In which Kankri is really Karkat's mom

by nerdzeword



Series: Little Box of Homestuck [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Stabdads, boxstuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-03
Updated: 2013-09-03
Packaged: 2017-12-25 12:10:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/952923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdzeword/pseuds/nerdzeword
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat has a nightmare and Kankri knows exactly what to do. Fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In which Kankri is really Karkat's mom

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Little Box of Homestuck. Where pretty much everything is whacked up. Boxstuck.tumblr.com

Kankri opened the door to the apartment, closing it carefully so as not to wake up his sleeping brother. He hung his coat on the coat-rack and walked into the kitchen, opening the fridge to set in the leftovers from tonight. He would have to go shopping soon, but he didn’t get paid for another week. He thought about asking the cook at work to save a little more food for him to bring home the next day, but they both might get in trouble for that. Sighing, Kankri dropped his keys into the basket on the counter and walked into his own room. He silently shut his door before turning on the light beside his bed.The teen looked at the clock, then rubbed his eyes. It was past midnight already, and he still had assignments to complete for school. He sat on his bed to take off his shoes, then let himself fall back to lay on it sideways. Just a few minutes, He thought to himself, putting off having to do his school work.

Hours later, Kankri woke up to hear sniffling from beside his bed. He looked over to find his little brother, Karkat, standing by the light with tears running down his face.  
“What is it? What happened?” Kankri sat up swiftly, wiping his bleary eyes and glancing at the clock. It was almost 2:30 in the morning.  
“I-I had a n-nightmare,” the child sniffled, looking at his feet.  
Kankri scooped Karkat into his arms, hugging the little boy tight and shushing him. “Do you want to tell me what it was about?”  
Karkat shook his head, burying his face in Kankri’s sweater as if to hide from whatever the dream had been about. Kankri held him tight, rocking slightly to soothe the boy. When Karkat finally raised his head from the sweater, Kankri noticed a dark scratch on his little brother’s face.  
“Karkat…. What happened?”   
The boy bit his lip. “I dropped the drawer. I don’t know what happened, but I wasn’t fast enough….”  
Kankri frowned. “Fast enough for what?”  
“I wasn’t faster than the silverware.”  
“Silverware? Do you have more cuts?” Kankri tried to keep the distress out of his voice as he lifted his brother’s sleeves to reveal several more cuts on each arm.  
Karkat nodded. “I tried to clean them, but they were stinging me so I just put on a different shirt to cover it.”  
Kankri stood, carrying his brother to the bathroom. He set Karkat on the counter and grabbed some bandages and ointment from the cabinet under the sink. Kankri lifted the boy’s shirt over his head to reveal several more cuts on his chest and stomach. He started to clean the cuts that decorated the younger boy’s body. Karkat hissed through his teeth at the stinging of his wounds.  
“That hurts, Kankri!”  
“I have to clean them, Karkat. They could get infected, and then you’ll have to go to the hospital. You don’t want that to happen, do you?”  
The boy petulantly shook his head and tried to keep quiet as Kankri finished cleaning the cuts and began to apply the ointment. The older brother was being as gentle as he could, while trying to think of ways to stop this from happening again. Why didn’t Karkat ask Jack for help? Maybe Karkat didn’t know he could? Kankri would have to talk to Jack again and try to get him to recognize when his little brother was hurt. As Kankri began to cover the wounds with bandages, he considered waking their guardian and yelling at him. That would probably just result in Kankri himself getting cut, and he had plenty of scars to remind him not to wake Jack until morning. His foster father was not one you wanted to get on his bad side. He wasn’t called Spades for nothing.  
Kankri finished bandaging Karkat and slipped the shirt back over the boy’s head. “Is that any better?”  
Karkat nodded and hopped down from the counter, stepping forward to hug his brother’s legs. “That feels better. Thanks Kankri.”  
The older brother forces a pained smile, then takes Karkat’s hand. “Let’s get you back into bed, okay?”  
They walk to the little boy’s room hand in hand, and Kankri tucks his younger brother into bed and turns off the light, then turns to walk out.  
“.... Kankri?”  
“Yes?”  
“Will you sleep in my bed tonight? I might get another nightmare.”  
Kankri sighed and walked back over to the boy’s bed. “I can’t sleep with you every time you have a nightmare, Karkat. You’ll be seven soon, and that’s too old for me to be sleeping with you whenever you get scared.”  
Karkat scowled. “Well, then I will stop then. Please?”  
After a few moments of deliberation, Kankri scooted his brother over to slide into the bed as well. “This is the last time, okay? After this you will have to get used to sleeping all by yourself.”  
Karkat nodded, cuddling close to his brother and closing his eyes. He went to sleep right away, while Kankri stayed awake for a bit longer, plagued by images of his brother being horribly hurt and him not being there to stop it.

That weekend, Kankri worked late to sew a comfort blanket for Karkat. It had a large crab in the middle and was covered with the Cancer symbol, Karkat’s zodiac sign and the disease their real father had died of several years before. He embroidered ‘Karkat Vantas’ in large letters across the blanket, to make sure that Karkat would be able to get it back if he were to lose it. Karkat never let that happen.


End file.
